Sweet Pepper Salsa Starter
Introduction
There are many fermented salsa recipes online that all amount to letting salsa sit out on the counter for a few days. I think then it’ll just be like the old salsa in the back of the fridge that fizzes. Also the sugar in the tomatoes could ferment in the wrong way (boozy salsa??). The thing is I had some AMAZING fermented salsa at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market that had carrot in it. It gave the salsa a little bite. I really want that.
I am going to use the Sweet Pepper ferment from the Shockeys’ book Fermented Vegetables and then add in some carrot. Once fermented I’ll use it as a salsa base by adding tomatoes and cilantro per their suggestion.
Getting Started: Ingredients, Tools, and Method
cling film as floatie trapper, glass weight, pickle pipe lid
Vegetables put in food processor and pulsed until salsa-size.
1# seeded peppers
1 peeled carrot
1 cippolini onion
2 seeded jalapeños
2 cloves garlic
* Arghhh!!! I couldn't decide how much salt to use. I’m third-ing the original recipe and according to that I should put in 4-6g of salt. However, 2% of the veggie weight is 16g. That seems like a big difference. Also, if brining whole peppers, many recipes call for a 5% brine so they don't go mushy and moldy! Of course I had to do 2 different batches.
Batch 1: 2% brine by weight
Batch 2: 0.06% (recommended ratio)
Oops, no carrots here
Observation Log
A few days
It’s quite hot in the house and the ferment has a very strong smell -the onion and garlic I suspect. I put it in an ice chest with a cold pack and thermometer. I tried to maintain a 70F-ish temp with ice-packs and for a while put it in the garage as it was super stinky.
2 week taste
Surprisingly, no discernible taste difference. Not fermented enough. Too oniony. Not spicy.
3 weeks
Still no big difference between the 2 jars. I made a salsa with some of the ferment plus fresh tomato, cilantro, salt. Still too oniony. Also not sour enough. The smell is much more like salsa. Quite strong but not as unpleasant.
4 weeks
Sour enough to refrigerate. Combined into one jar. Next time less onion, more jalapeño (include some seeds), and more carrot. Also, try a quick ferment salsa.
Follow Up
I retested the pepper base with some variations:
The onion
white instead of cippolini
used less than half the quantity
The salt and the carrot
1% by weight (no carrot)
2.5% by weight (no carrot)
2.5 % by weight (with carrot)
The temperature
stored the ferment in a fridge set to 65F
New Observations
Quite a bit of overflow
The 2.5%-brine-no-carrot jar has settled best with brine easily covering the veg.. The other two jars have a large amount of liquid at the bottom with the veg attempting to float above brine-level.
Not obnoxiously smelly. I do not know if this is due to using less onion or the lower temperature or the confinement in the fridge.
2 weeks
As with the first attempt, the batches were not actually that different from each other. They were all mold-free, sour, and soft. Even the carroty one was soft.
I mixed up a batch of salsa with heirloom tomatoes, loads of cilantro, a pinch of salt and a spoonful of the ferment. Nicely flavorful.
